Wendy Davis campaigns for Clinton campaign on campus

Former Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis discussed the importance of voting in the upcoming election in a campaign stop for Hillary Clinton in front of the Campus Y Friday. 

“This really is the most important election of your lifetime because it is going to literally define our identity as a country — who we are,” she said at the event.

in June 2013, Davis held an 11-hour filibuster in the Texas Senate to delay a vote on Texas Senate Bill 5, which would have restricted abortion access. She said the bill was ultimately delayed thanks to the individuals who occupied the state capitol building and yelled until the midnight deadline, keeping the Senate from conducting a vote.  

“What mattered was that, individually, each person decided that they were powerful enough that they were going to show up, and that’s really where we are in this election,” she said. “One by one by one by one added together as a collective — our voices are so very powerful and they are going to determine the outcome of this race.”

Courtney Sams, president of the UNC Young Democrats, who helped organize the event, said Davis inspired her to become involved in politics. 

“Her 11-hour filibuster in favor of women’s health really made the political personal for me and showed me how politics can really make a difference in everyday lives,” she said.

Pamela Conover, a political science professor at UNC who attended the event, said Davis is campaigning at UNC because of the potential for voter mobilization.

“I think UNC is an important university in North Carolina where young voters could be potentially mobilized,” she said. “Getting young voters — millennials — mobilized is important to Clinton’s strategy in North Carolina.”

Davis’ campaign efforts are significant in North Carolina due to it being a battleground state, said Morgan Tate, UNC senior and attendee at the event.

“I think it’s important for her to definitely get out the vote in places like Orange County and for students to be able to know about her issues,” she said.

Davis said the election is important not only because of the candidates, but because of the existing vacancy and the likelihood of two to three additional vacancies in the Supreme Court during the upcoming president’s tenure.

“What happens in this election is going to set the tone not only for the policies that are going to be fought for from the Oval Office, but it’s going to set the future of this Supreme Court for decades,” she said.

Davis said as a young adult she benefitted from the access to resources that modern women may not have today, but that Clinton is fighting for these resources.

“In addition to making sure that we have affordable higher education, (Clinton’s) talking about the importance of quality affordable childcare, which is nonexistent in more than half of our states in this country,” she said.

She said part of the reason she stood for 11 hours in the Texas Senate was her experience with access to a Planned Parenthood clinic as a young woman. These issues of childcare and healthcare are both a part of this election, she said.

“We know we have one candidate, Hillary Clinton, who’s talking about the importance of every one of (these issues), and another candidate who’s outwardly hostile to that,” she said.

Tate said Clinton and Davis are both politicians with similar ideals.

“They’re both women who have experienced adversity in their lives and had to fight through male-dominated systems in order to have their voices heard,” she said.

Jordan Jenkins, sophomore and campus fellow for the North Carolina Democratic Party, said Davis is one of her personal heroes.

“I was just so moved that there was someone out there fighting for women’s rights when often they’re disregarded because men are so much more represented in politics,” she said. 

@crmetzler

state@dailytarheel.com